


don't say maybe (cause i'll go crazy)

by gnarleyquinn



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Coming Out, Emily is gay, Emily is the new girl, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, JJ and Spencer as foster siblings, JJ as a cheerleading captain, JJ is Bi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 04:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15477333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnarleyquinn/pseuds/gnarleyquinn
Summary: in which hotch is a foster dad, jj is america's sweetheart, emily is a gay super genius, and spencer just wants to have a good time.orthe hsau that nobody asked for





	don't say maybe (cause i'll go crazy)

Emily sighs when the blaring ring of her alarm clock wakes her from a peaceful slumber. She opens her eyes, sending sharp glares at the _seemingly_ (you never know) inanimate object, and sticks her hand out, sliding it across the top of the clock until she hits the snooze button. She doesn’t try to fall back asleep, (once she’s up, she’s up), but she lays in bed for a little bit, almost willing for the morning to pause for an hour or two before she has to suffer another first day of school. She checks NASA’s website for any news of a meteor happening to hit the DMV tri-state area, but Emily has never been that lucky.

“After all these years of supporting Pluto,” she mumbles, throwing her comforter off her body as she sits up on the side of the bed. She takes a moment to check some more social media feeds before getting ready for school, but no important news catches her eye. The clock beeps again, a result of her not completely turning off the alarm, and she checks the time.

 _6:45_.

She begrudgingly gets up, heading to the bathroom to start getting ready. Her morning routine is simple, and her first day outfit is even simpler, but it still takes her longer than it should to get ready. She’s far too early, but in Emily time, she’s running late. She hastily grabs her messenger bag from the foot of her bed and heads downstairs, having just a few minutes to spare before she needs to head out. When she reaches the kitchen she finds a note on the table from her mom, who presumably had to rush out at an even earlier hour than Emily. She picks up the note.

_Have a great first day, Emily! Try to meet some people. Lunch is in the fridge. Xoxo, Mom_

Her mouth quirks up a bit at the sentiment, but she can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Emily can’t remember the last time her mom saw her out on her first day of school. Sliding the note in her pocket, she goes to the fridge and finds a paper bag lunch with her name on it. She laughs a little at that, deciding to take a picture of it before sending it to her mom.

 **Emily (7:02):** Wanted to make sure none of your other kids took it?

She notices the time and puts her phone away, not waiting for a response, and she runs out to her car, the nerves of the first day already starting to settle into her stomach.

It’s not like she’s bad at being the new girl, but she doesn’t necessarily like it. Especially when she’s starting halfway through the school year. It’s a lot easier to talk to people when everyone is in the same boat as you. Even so, she doesn’t necessarily want to make friends either. She kind of just wants to get through the year before her mom tells her that they’re packing up again and moving miles away to a different town. Get good grades, do a few activities and she’ll get into a good college. That’s what she tells herself, at least.

The car ride is short, and she makes it to the high school in no time. The parking lot is practically empty, and on a normal day Emily would’ve assumed that school was cancelled, although she knows today that she’s well over thirty minutes early for the first bell. Sue her, she likes to be prepared.

She parks near the exit of the parking lot, partly because she wants a quick exit at the end of the day, but also because she doesn’t know the parking lot hierarchy at this school. She figures it’s better to park in the hills rather than steal someone’s spot. She’s trying to fly under the radar here. Locking her car, she turns to face the large brick building. It’s a public school, a really big one from what she’s seen, and if she’s honest, it’s a little intimidating. She hasn’t been to a public school since the fifth grade and she’s worried a public _high school_ won’t be as peachy as elementary school.

When she reaches the doors she hopes for a second that they’re not locked, that she’s not _too_ early (which yeah, she _is_ ), but unlike the nonexistent meteor, the day has taken a turn in her favor. She steps through a set of the front doors, the entryway just as shiny as she remembers from her visit two weeks ago, and takes in the halls that are going to be her home for the next few months. She takes her schedule out of her bag and finds her locker number.

_B-223._

She guesses that it’s probably upstairs somewhere, so she takes her time checking out the downstairs before she finds it. The halls are clean, and she swears that every ten feet there’s another awards case lining the wall. The trophies and plaques span around everything from Science League to Debate Team to even the golf team, but she can’t help that notice the large football case waiting outside the cafeteria doors. She peaks inside, the glass case adorned with retired jerseys, every team photo since the 1970s, and at a deeper glance, she sees cheerleading accolades to match. She figures it must be one of _those_ schools. When she moves on past the cafeteria, she finds herself near the auditorium, where she finds another glass case seemingly as large as the football case, full of playbills and Thespian awards.

“What is this, _East High_?” She mumbles as she turns away from the case. She huffs and walks to the nearest staircase and moves up, finding a less-detailed, but still decorated second floor. Luckily, she finds her locker quickly, and she gets embarrassingly excited at the fact that her anatomy class is right next to it. (It’s just convenient that she can swap her books out right after lunch, is all). As she’s setting up her locker, she notices some buzz start to appear behind her in the hallway. She assumes the buses had just pulled up, as a large wave of kids take over the hallway behind her. She feels her nerves return as the peaceful silence of the morning is interrupted, and she closes her locker quickly, not really wanting to deal with her neighbors so soon.

Her first class is AP Literature, and she makes her way to the classroom without a hitch, finding it empty, she has no problem letting out an audible sigh when she finds all of the desks set up in pairs.

“Maybe that meteor finally hit.” She mumbles. She picks a pair of desks in the front row, but closest to the windows of the room. There are still about ten minutes before class starts, so she’s surprised when a boy walks into the room shortly after her, also seemingly put off by the state of the desks in the room. They make brief eye contact, and Emily can’t tell who looks away faster. She busies herself by setting up her desk with some of her books and a few pens, but before she can finish the boy interrupts her.

“I-I don’t mean to be a bother, but someone has been sitting in that seat since the first day of school, so I’m not that sure they’d be willing to, um-”

“Oh,” Emily’s eyes widen and she picks up her books, stuttering a bit before responding, “Do you know where would be a good place to sit?”

The boy seems conflicted in his response, but his eyes give away a tell when they dart to the spot next to him.

“There are a few desks open in the back, but if you really wanted to be in the front you could sit next to me. It’s empty.”

“Oh, um, yeah. That would be great, thank you.” Emily moves to the desk to his left, and sits down, putting her books back in their respective spaces. “I’m Emily.” She looks over at the boy who offers her a quick smile.

“Spencer,” He says, “You’re new here?”

“That obvious?” Emily laughs when she sees the blush spread across Spencer’s face.

“No-it’s just, they usually send new kids around with student escorts. I wasn’t sure if you had just switched classes, or something. It’s a big school.”

“They offered it to me, but I like to do things on my own. I got here early today, I think I got down the layout of the school pretty well.”

Both of their attention turns to the sound of more people entering the room, and Emily shifts a bit as the teacher stops right in front of her.

“Emily Prentiss?”

“Yes, that’s me.” Emily smiles at the teacher.

“I’m Mr. Granger. Have you had a minute to look over the readings at all?”

“Yes, I’ve gotten a good look at most of them.”

“Alright. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the assignments. I’m sure your new desk partner will be willing to help you out as well, if needed.”

Spencer ducks his head as this is said, but still mumbles out a polite, “Of course.”

Emily nods as the teacher stalks off, and she feels slightly more comfortable than she did at the start of the day. The bell rings and she watches the rest of the desks in the classroom fill in with tired teenagers. Mr. Granger writes the assignment on the whiteboard without saying more than a hello to the class, and Emily wonders if this is going to be a daily occurrence. She wouldn’t mind, but it’s kind of hard to learn from teachers who don’t teach all that much. Spencer speaking pulls her out of her thoughts.

“This is the first class this year that I won’t have to work alone.” Spencer states this as a matter of fact, and Emily isn’t sure how to respond. Spencer notes her silence and laughs, saving her from having to piece together a thought.

“Sorry, that sounded a little grim. Everyone in here is a senior, so they were all kind of friends before the school year started. In an uneven class, I’m the odd man out.” He explains, “Well, until now.”

“What grade are you in?” Emily asks.

“I’m a junior,” Spencer looks like he’s going to say more, but Emily cuts him off in her near excitement.

“Me too!” Emily notes the surprised look on Spencer’s face.

“Really?”

“Yeah, well, we move around a lot, so the curriculums are different everywhere we go.” Emily says, “How did you get in this class?”

“Oh, I’m just pretty good at english, I guess.”

Emily can tell it’s probably more than that, but she doesn’t push it.

“I _guess_ , I’ll be the judge of that, huh?”

Spencer laughs and they get started on their work, finishing and handing in the packet nearly thirty minutes before the class is over. They spend the rest of the class talking more, and Emily knows she’s breaking her rule, but she’s really enjoying Spencer’s company. She learns by the end of the period that he’s more than, “just pretty good at english,” and that he actually skipped a grade when he was younger. She knows she probably doesn’t meet his intellect exactly but he’s one of the smartest people she’s ever met and he’s _younger_ than her, which, in all her years of fancy boarding schools, and studying abroad, she hasn’t met someone who challenged her intellect like Spencer does. It’s exciting, quite frankly.

The bell rings and she takes her time gathering her books, figuring it’d be best to not be the first one to her next class. She wants to avoid any seating chart mishaps for the rest of the day. Before Emily leaves, Spencer pauses in front of her, seemingly nervous, so she takes the first bite.

“What’s up?” She stands with her bag.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come eat lunch with me and my friends.” He notices the emerging look of hesitance on Emily’s face and adds, “It’s only four other people, max. I think you would get along with them really nicely.”

“I appreciate the invite, Spencer, but I think I’m just going to go to the library for lunch.” She holds up her textbook, “I still have a lot of reading to catch up on before tomorrow’s class.”

“No you don’t.” Spencer smirks and Emily narrows her eyebrows, Spencer taking that as a cue to keep talking, “You made a joke referencing the last chapter of _Grendel_ while we were still working on the packet. You’ve obviously already read it.”

Emily smiles and blushes a bit at the fact that he caught her bluff, and she decides she wouldn’t mind breaking the rules to make at least one friend. Lunch can’t be that bad.

“You caught me,” She laughs and looks down again as Spencer waits expectantly, “I, um, I guess I can do lunch, yeah.”

“Great,” Spencer smiles, “We sit at a table near the back wall in the cafeteria. You won’t miss us.”

Emily nods as Spencer walks out of the classroom, and she takes a deep breath before walking out herself.

The next two classes before lunch go by quickly, and Emily finds that she enjoyed them more than she expected to. Her french teacher was actually born and raised in France, and while she was almost fluent in the language, she found that she was learning a lot more in regards to slang, and how people actually speak rather than just proper french. Her other class, AP government, was something she only took because her mom suggested it, and while she wasn’t necessarily interested in hearing about all of the things her mom did for a living, the teacher was pretty cool which made the class tolerable to be in.

When government is over, she walks at an average pace to the lunch room, not wanting to get there too early but also not wanting to get there too late. She finds her timing is good, because when she enters the cafeteria she scans the back wall, and just like Spencer said, she can’t miss them.

She sees two other people sitting at the table beside Spencer–a boy wearing a letterman jacket and a girl who looks like she just came out of the rainbow version of hot topic–and it’s an odd bunch to Emily. Spencer and the boy are sitting with their backs facing Emily as the girl is sitting on the other side of them, and she’s the first to notice as Emily approaches the table. She mentions something to Spencer who turns around and grins when he sees Emily, causing her to return the smile.

“Hey, Emily,” Spencer sounds excited, making Emily feel more relaxed in an environment out of her comfort zone.

“This is Derek,” He says gesturing to the boy in the letterman jacket, “And this is Penelope.” The blonde waves, and Emily introduces herself.

“I’m Emily,” She smiles at them and moves aside on the bench so she’s sitting directly in front of Derek.

“You can come sit next to me,” Emily nods and moves around the table, climbing over the bench and placing her bag by her feet.

“Is this the whole group?” Emily asks as she looks around at the three.

“We’re missing one,” Derek says.

“My sister,” Emily nods at Spencer, “She’s making up a test, so she doesn’t know if she’ll make it today, but she’s excited to meet you.”

“Oh, good.” Emily gives Spencer a small smile as she pulls out her lunch.

“So,” Penelope turns to Emily excitedly, startling her a bit, “Where did you move here from?”

“We were living in New York before we came here,”  
Emily explains, “But it was only for the summer, really, so I don’t count it as much.”

“Do you move a lot?” Derek asks.

“Yeah, my mom is an ambassador, so we’ve lived all over the world, basically.” Emily ducks her head at the prospect of sharing this information. Not that it was a lot, but she’s not used sharing even this little with random peers.

“Ambassador,” Derek muses, “So she like goes to other countries and deals with their governments?”

“That’s a simple way to put it, but yeah, pretty much.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Emily nods, and looks over to Penelope and Derek again.

“Are you guys juniors?”

“No, we’re seniors,” Derek says.

“How’d you all meet?”

Thinking about it, Emily remembered Spencer sounding like he didn’t know many seniors, so she’s curious as to how this group came to be.

“They’re my sister’s best friends, so I was kind of like a fourth wheel at first, but with my irresistible charm and wit, they couldn’t get enough of me.”

“No, no, no,” Derek points his finger at Spencer and turns to Emily, “He wouldn’t leave us alone. We had to let him sit at the lunch table. He’s like a piece of gum underneath the table.”

“That’s not true!” Spencer laughs, “Remember I tried to sit with Kalvin Bingham for like, two days to work on a project and you almost had an aneurysm!”

“That’s because I don’t like the guy,” Derek taps the top of Spencer’s head while making eye contact with Emily, “This brain _must_ be protected.”

“Oh, I got to witness it.” Emily laughs. Spencer shrugs Derek’s hand off of his head and rolls his eyes.

“Emily’s just as smart as me!” Spencer exclaims, “She’s taking like, a hundred advanced courses and she can speak five languages.”

“Five?” Penelope looks at Emily in awe as Emily attempts to hide a blush.

She’s smart. She knows she is, but she doesn’t like to gloat in that fact.

“I mean, when you’re living in different countries you pick up the language. I’m only completely fluent in three.”

“Only,” Derek chuckles, “I’m barely fluent in _one_.”

“Are you still taking a language here?” Penelope asks.

“Yeah, for some reason they couldn’t take my language credits already so I just did a placement test. I picked french, since it’s my favorite and I only have to take it this year.”

“Sweet, I’m in french too, what class are you in?” Derek asks.

“I had it this morning, second period.”

“With Madame Avris?”

Emily nods.

“No way, we were in the same class.”

“Really?” Emily is surprised, “I didn’t see you this morning.”

“I was at a team meeting for the football team. We have a few big games coming up, so there’s a lot to go over.”

“They just let you miss class?”

“Football is important around here,” Penelope says. Emily can hear a bit of disdain, but she outwardly shows nothing but support for Derek, “Derek Morgan here is the king of the field. Star quarterback.”

“Wow,” Emily says, “Spencer didn’t tell me we’d be in the company of royalty.”

“Hey now, JJ is captain of the cheerleading team. I’m not the only guilty one here.”

“That’s _co_ -captain, Morgan.”

Emily looks over to the brunette who’s just appeared at the head of the table, and while her demeanor screams _mean_ , the rest of the table smiles at her presence.

“Sorry, I forgot they made up that spot just for you.”

Derek smirks and Emily’s rethinking the group’s opinion for the girl when the two stare each other down for a minute. Her second guess is proven wrong when Elle rolls her eyes and smacks Derek on the arm with the packet she’s holding, causing Derek and the table to burst out in laughter, including Elle.

“What do you need, _Captain_?”

“We’re doing a surprise for the homecoming game and we need every senior on the team to fill out a sheet. Tell them it’s for the yearbook.”

“And I don’t get the surprise?”

“Do you know what we’re doing?” Elle challenges.

“No,”

“Then it's a surprise.”

Derek rolls his eyes but grabs the papers and tucks them into his backpack. Elle takes her eyes off of Derek for the first time since her arrival and looks around the table, and smiles at Emily when she notices the new addition.

“Are you new here?”

Emily nods shyly, “Yeah, I just started today. I’m Emily.”

“Elle Greenaway, nice to meet you.”

“Be careful around this one, Emily.” Derek says, gesturing to Elle.

Elle smacks him on the arm again, which Emily assumes is a constant theme, and Derek mutters, “Ow!”

“Be careful around _this_ one.” Elle points at Derek.

“Me and Spencer just choose to stay away from both of them.” Penelope says, and Emily laughs when Elle and Derek both shout, “Hey!” at the same time.

“I’m beginning to sense that there’s never a dull moment around here.” Emily says.

“Never,” Spencer smiles and Emily can tell he means it.

“Just wait till you see Derek and JJ together,” Penelope says, “You’re going to want a shield.”

“Speaking of,” Elle says, “Where is your girlfriend?”

Emily’s eyes flicker up at Derek quickly, the question pointed at him.

“She’s making up a test,” Spencer says.

Emily thinks JJ must be pretty popular if her and Derek are dating. The quarterback and the head cheerleader. That’s a high school stereotype if she’s ever heard of one. Elle and Derek provide more banter for the group, going off about something involving football practice and Derek wearing tutu, and Emily decides that she can deal with making a few friends, at the most.

\---

JJ rubs her eyes as she stares at the paper in front of her. It’s not that hard, it _shouldn’t_ be that hard at least, but she can’t for life of her remember remember which year the Maryland Toleration Act was mandated (Okay, maybe it was important to know in terms of history, but does she really need to know the exact _year_?).

She checks the clock above the door, almost ten minutes left of the lunch block. She’s annoyed–Spencer said he was bringing someone new to lunch that JJ would, “really like,” and she wanted to meet them–and she’s also not sure she has enough time to finish the test.

 _You can’t make up a make-up_ , she thinks, and she jots down the year 1637, hoping it’s close enough that the teacher would pity her and give her maybe a fraction of a point. She rushes through the twenty questions she has left, (who gives a 90 question test in a 45 minute class period?), and hands it in just after the lunch bell rings.

She checks her phone for the first time since she started the test and she has two notifications, one from Elle and one from Spencer. She opens Elle’s first, figuring it’s something about cheer.

 **Elle (11:35 AM):** Strauss is cancelling practice today, she said the storm wasn’t going away anytime soon and that the basketball team already reserved the gym.

JJ peeks outside a window in the hallway, she hadn’t even noticed it was raining.

 **JJ (12:23 PM):** Ok. I’ll send it out in the group text and on the facebook page. Can you post the new routine video on facebook? I’ll tell everyone to watch it.

 **Elle (12:23 PM):** You got it.

JJ chuckles at Elle’s speedy response, she thinks the girl never puts down her cellphone. She’s kind of relieved that practice is cancelled, still feeling stressed from the make up test, but the team has a lot of work to do before the homecoming game, so now she’s going to be stressed about that all night. She moves over to Spencer’s text, groaning when she sees him questioning her about the test.

 **Spencer (12:16 PM):** I’m assuming the test is going to take all period. Let me know how it goes?

 **JJ (12:25 PM):** This score might be worse than the first one. How was the new person at lunch?

JJ quickly goes to her locker before heading to the anatomy classroom. She’s kind of excited to go, they’re starting a new section so the teacher is switching their stations and partners. She walks into the room and forms behind the crowd of her classmates already looking at the seating chart, and she finds her name on the desk in the back right corner of the room, next to someone named Emily. She doesn’t remember an Emily being in this class before, but it’s possible she just never noticed. She goes to the station, Emily isn’t there yet, and sits down, opening the reply that JJ felt buzz in her pocket a few minutes earlier.

 **Spencer (12:27 PM):** Yikes. Maybe we can get a study group together for the next one. Lunch was fun, hopefully you’ll get to meet them tomorrow.

 **JJ (12:30 PM):** I’m not planning on re-taking any tests anytime soon, so we should be alright. Hope you didn’t miss me too much :)

 **Spencer (12:31 PM):** It was actually a peaceful lunch without you and Derek taking turns throwing pieces of lettuce at each other.

 **JJ (12:31 PM):** That was one time!

 **Spencer (12:31 PM):** Tell that to my favorite copy of Lord of The Rings.  
**Spencer (12:32 PM):** Class is starting, talk to you later.

JJ smirks at Spencer’s refusal to text during class, and sends back one last message, letting him know that she can drive him home after school today. Her head pops up as the stool next to her starts sliding out, and she looks over to find the girl she assumes is Emily, taking her seat at the lab station. She freezes for a moment, taken aback by how put together and  _adult_ this high school student seems, but she calms herself, having enough free will left to at least try and play it cool.

“Oh, hey,” JJ grabs her attention, “I’m Jennifer, are you new here?”

JJ doesn't know why the name Jennifer even came out of her mouth, she not sure that anyone at this school even knows her name isn't actually JJ. 

The girl smiles shyly at her, and for a second JJ worries she was wrong and that this girl has been in her class the entire year until she speaks.

“Yeah, my name’s Emily. I just started here today.”

“Oh, cool. That kind of sucks to switch schools this far into senior year.” JJ voices. She thinks she would actually murder Hotch if he ever tried that on her. She notices Emily blush at the statement, peaking JJ’s interest.

“I’m actually a junior.”

“Damn,” JJ muses. She figures she should be used to super geniuses by now, having lived with one for the last two and a half years, but she’s still impressed. She hasn’t heard of any other juniors before her brother tackling anatomy so early. She notes that if Emily is as smart as she seems upon first glance, that she could be a good friend for Spencer. She motions for Emily come closer, the girl a bit hesitant but complying anyway. “Don’t let Brent over there hear that.” JJ murmurs, “He can barely deal with girls being smarter than him, let alone a junior _girl_.”

Emily laughs as she pulls away and JJ smiles.

“Isn’t that all the more reason to let him know?” Emily winks at JJ and for the first time in a while, JJ actually blushes herself. She laughs and shakes her head, the teacher starting the class cutting their conversation short.

The class is pretty boring, and the fact that their assignment was to outline the next chapter didn’t give JJ and Emily a lot of time to talk. Even so, JJ liked having her as a lab partner and was kind of excited for their next class.

JJ’s next two classes went kind of slow, the excitement of getting to _go home_ after school playing tricks on her mind. Her phone buzzes in the middle of her last class which happens to be study hall, and she finds a text from Hotch in the group chat JJ had aptly named _House of Hotchner_.

**House of Hotchner**

**Hotch (1:35 PM):** JJ, I heard cheer practice has been cancelled today. I’ll come home early and make dinner. What do you guys want?

 **Spencer (1:35 PM):** I could go for spaghetti and meatballs.

 **JJ (1:36 PM):** That sounds good to me

 **Hotch (1:38 PM):** You guys are boring.  
**Hotch (1:38 PM):** I’ll be home at 6.

JJ playfully rolls her eyes at Hotch’s text, he’s _never_ happy with JJ and Spencer’s choice of dinner, but he always complies. JJ’s kind of excited to eat dinner as a family tonight since she hasn’t been able to eat with them since the first week of school. She wishes she wasn’t so busy sometimes, but she reasons that it’ll be better for her in the long run.

She spends the rest of study hall finishing up her calculus homework, and by the time the final bell rings she swears her brain is ready to explode. She makes a mental note to compare her answers with Spencer’s later, just to see if she’s even on the right track, and she heads out to the car. She gets to the car to find Spencer already there, leaning on the trunk waiting for her. He was smart enough to bring an umbrella today.

“Hey,” She shouts over the rain, and Spencer stands, holding out his hand.

“Can I drive?” He asks with a sly smile, and JJ takes the keys and chucks them at him.

“If we die I’m telling Hotch you forced me.”

“But we’d be dead.” Spencer deadpans and JJ rolls her eyes, shoving him lightly as she rushes out of the rain and into the passenger seat of the car. “Just get us home before tomorrow, Spence.”

She climbs into the car and hears Spencer quietly mumble as he opens the driver side door, “I don’t drive _that_ slow.”

“Yeah, just don’t forget to put your foot on the gas.”

Spencer huffs and pulls out of the parking spot, making sure to drive the two home at a safe speed.

When they arrive at the house, they hurry through the rain and they both go their separate ways to do homework, Spencer favoring the living room table while JJ prefers her own bedroom. She’s always liked in there, having her own space to just, live. She drops her bag by the foot of her bed and grabs her laptop off of her desk before settling into the mattress, figuring the best place to start would be the english paper she has due next week. It shouldn’t take her too long, but this is one of the few afternoons she’ll have off before she has to turn it in, so she’d rather get ahead. She puts the music to their homecoming routine on repeat as background noise, hoping to get a better feel for the rhythm before they start tomorrow.

She’s a couple paragraphs in when Spencer’s texting her that dinner’s ready, so she must’ve not heard Hotch come home over the noise.

She heads downstairs to find them settling in at the kitchen table, serving themselves to hefty portions of spaghetti and meatballs. JJ shakes her head in disbelief at how much the boys have taken, wishing the female race was graced with the ability to eat that much food. After they’ve all had a substantial amount, Hotch gets to his usual questioning.

“So, how was school today?” Hotch makes eye contact with both of them, and JJ nods for Spencer to speak first.

“Well, I made a new friend today,” Spencer states, and Hotch’s eyebrows shoot up in a bit of surprise. Spencer had a hard time making friends when he first came to live with them, and even two years since, he hadn’t really moved out of the group that JJ first introduced him to. (Not that that’s bad; JJ always thought Spencer was the missing piece to their group of her, Derek, and Penelope).

“That’s great, Spencer. Where’d you meet?”

“Oh, well, she was in my english classroom this morning when I came in, but she was sitting in Eric Little’s seat, and we know how much trouble he can cause, so I just let her know that it was taken. She seemed like she really wanted to sit in the front though, so I offered her the seat next to mine since it was open.”

“That’s the class that does a lot of partner work?” Hotch asks.

“Yeah,” Spencer nods, “At first I was a little apprehensive about working with someone else, but she’s _really_ smart. She’s a junior too.”

JJ’s ears perk up at the last part of his sentence, and she nearly drops her fork when he says it.

“Wait, are you talking about Emily?”

“Aw man, you met her? I really wanted to introduce you two.”

“You know this girl?” Hotch turns to JJ.

“She was new in my anatomy class today and the seating chart was switched so I got paired off with her. I figured anatomy was her only super advanced class.”

“She must be pretty bright to be so far ahead in the curriculum.” Hotch says.

“When we were talking she briefly mentioned that she studied abroad for a bit, so maybe wherever she went to school did things out of order.”

“It’s possible,” Hotch agrees, “You said you befriended her, did you spend any time with her out of class?”

“I convinced her to come eat lunch with us today and she actually got along really nicely with the group. I think she’s coming back tomorrow.”

Hotch’s eyebrows furrow a bit at that news, and his eyes travel back to JJ, whose heart began pounding in her chest a little harder.

“You didn’t meet her at lunch?”

“Um, no, I had to meet Coach Strauss to go over a few more things about homecoming.”

Hotch accepts that for a second, and JJ almost thinks she’s in the clear when before she can stop him, Spencer starts talking.

“I thought you went to Mr. Ryker during lunch?”

JJ’s face goes steely in a way that she hopes Hotch doesn’t notice, and she tries to signal to Spencer that she didn’t exactly tell Hotch about the re-test.

“No, Spence, I _wanted_ to go see Ryker to ask him a question about the paper due, but Strauss called me into her office instead. You must’ve misunderstood me.”

“My mistake.” Spencer still sounds confused and JJ avoids the gaze Hotch is now dividing between the two of them. Knowing she’s thoroughly stuck herself between a rock and hard place on this one, she gets up to busy herself with pouring herself another glass of water. She hears a soft murmur behind her and she leans against the counter with her back facing the rest of the kitchen.

“JJ, will you help me clean up?” Hotch asks with a tone in his voice that JJ knows means something completely different than clean up, and she avoids eye contact as they clear the table and wash the dishes in silence. It’s not uncomfortable, but she’s certainly had more fun doing the dishes with Hotch than she’s having right now. Just as she’s drying the last dish, Hotch leans back against the counter next to her. She focuses her eyes downward, the hardwood floor seeming more interesting in this instant, but she can feel his stare on her.

“How was your day at school?” He asks her very quietly and very softly, and JJ doesn’t like that she can’t tell whether he’s angry with her or not.

“It was fine.” She steals a glance at Hotch, and when he mumbles a confirming, “Just fine?,” she nods and looks away again.

“So, did you see Coach Strauss during lunch, or did you see Mr. Ryker during lunch?”

JJ bites her lip for a second before answering.

“Mr. Ryker.” She can feel her heart in her stomach as she says this, and she wishes she weren’t so nervous. She knows she shouldn’t be, she’s doing everything a good student would, but she can’t help but shake the feeling that Hotch will be disappointed in her when he finds out. Failing one test and then being almost positive that you failed the re-take isn’t something most people want to admit to their parents. Especially JJ.

“What for?”

“I had to retake a test.” She looks up at him now, a little bit of confusion imminent on his face.

“I don’t remember you missing any days of school.”

“I didn’t, I just-”

“Jennifer.”

JJ’s eyes meet Hotch’s instantly at the sound of her full first name, and he points his gaze at her, his final warning to tell the truth.

“I failed a test and Mr. Ryker let me retake it.” She looks away from him as she speaks, not wanting to watch the look of disappointment flood his features.

“Is that all?”

“No, I-I’m pretty sure I bombed the retake too.” She crosses her arms and leans against the counter as well, her gaze still focused on the floor, “I’m sorry.”

“JJ, you don’t have to apologize for failing a test.”

She looks over to him.

“But-”

“Did you study?”

“Yes, but-”

“Did you go to your teacher and ask for help?”

“Yeah, sort of-”

“Did you try again, to the best of your ability?”

“I guess so.” They finally make eye contact again and JJ feels like a little bit of the weight on her shoulders has been released, but the bulk is still there.

“Then the only thing you should be sorry for is lying to me about it.”

“I am--really sorry,” She wipes away a tear that escaped the corner of her eye (Which like, _seriously_ , JJ?), “I’ve just been really stressed out lately, I think the lack of sleep is starting to get to me.”

JJ laughs to try and lighten the mood, and Hotch cracks a smile with her, a sign that he’s not _actually_ mad at her, and he pulls her into his chest, kissing the top of her head.

“You are having fun, aren’t you?”

She knows the hidden meaning behind his question and she pulls away enough to look at his face.

“I am.”

He looks a bit apprehensive, but after a moment he seems to accept her answer.

“Alright,” He says, “Why don’t you head upstairs for bed. You have practice at 6 tomorrow morning, right?”

As if on cue, JJ yawns. “I do,” She says, a chuckle escaping her mouth.

“Pancakes when you get home?”

“Yes, please.”

“Spencer and I are on it.”

The two walk upstairs together and Hotch pauses before entering Spencer’s room.

“Goodnight, JJ. I love you.”

“I love you too, Hotch.”

JJ opens her bedroom door and steps inside, ready to crash for the night.

**Author's Note:**

> hello! thank you for reading! if you'd like, there are many, many, headcanons to accompany this fic, and if you want to know more, or even just want to yell about jemily in general, feel free to visit me at [gnarleyquiinn.tumblr.com](gnarleyquiinn.tumblr.com) :') don't be afraid to drop any comments/criticisms/whatever below! i hope you enjoyed!


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